Looking at e-bay for OBD analysers, the most common unit seems to be by Konnwei, which appear to be programmed for various vehicles. Are these any good? The price is right, but is the value good? They appear to come in 2 flavours, £23, and £45.
What are you needing or expecting such a device to do? Read basic OBD codes for one make?Read and reset OBD codes for all makes? Or the ability to deal with both OBD and manufacturer-specific codes?
Chris
I'm not sure, which is why I'm asking for guidance. I have an immediate need for a device to read codes for my Renault Laguna, as it has the symptoms of a failed coil-pack, and it would help to know which one of six to replace first. For that, £23 is cheaper than visits to the local garage, especially considering that it will have further uses, such as clearing the fault code. Maybe it could reprogram the replacement tyre pressure transmitter, but I would not be surprised if it couldn't. For that money, I would not expect it to read multiple makes.
When my coil pack failed on my car it resulted in so much electrical interference that the 3 fault codes recorded had nothing to do with my car - diesel faults on a petrol engine! About the only thing they didn't report was a coil failure!
If you have an android smart phone I would recommend a £6/£10 bluetooth OBD adapter (ELM 327) from Ebay and the Torque application (the free one works well) which would give you the fault codes, a possible link to web site with diagnostics and the ability to reset fault codes. There are a few Youtube videos showing it working with a Renault Laguna
I have had cheap stand alone systems before and they do very little - giving the fault code and the ability for resetting the light. The accompanying documentation gives the basic generic fault codes but you would still have to do some web research to find out what is really at fault.
My friend's analyser correctly identified the problem the first time, so I hope that is not the case. But his is a professional unit, which he just swaps a little PCB in to change from one car to another.
No I don't, which is why I am looking at stand-alone units. But I do have a laptop, if any of them will work with that. I'll look at that adapter, and see if it has any useful relatives.
That was what I was afraid of, hence the question. Thanks.
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